In this funny, hard-edged memoir, Mary Karr (http://www.marykarr.com/bio.php), a prize-winning poet and critic, looks back at her upbringing. The setting is a swampy East Texas refinery town in a volatile, defiantly loving family. She recalls her painter mother, seven times married, whose outlaw spirit could tip into psychosis. There is her violent father who spins tales with his […]
Sarah Ward (http://crimepieces.com/about/) has followed the oft heard advice for budding authors which is to ‘write what you know’. She has set her debut novel in the Derbyshire Peak District where she lives. The summary is as follows. The scene is a small town in the idyllic English countryside of Derbyshire in 1978. Local people have been traumatized
Bettany Hughes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bettany_Hughes) has been gracing our TV screens since 2012 presenting the history of the classical world. Her programme ‘Genius of the Ancient World – Socrates‘ (http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/proginfo/2015/32/socrates-genius-of-the-ancient-world) was broadcast on 12 August 2015 on BBC 4. Whether to follow up the programme or in preparation for a second viewing I would recommend her 2010 book The
The Hemlock Cup by Bettany Hughes Read More »
It was in 1980 that I first plunged into the ‘science versus religion’ debate. The standard text of the day was still Ian G. Barbour’s 1966 book ‘Issues in Science and Religion’. Interest in the subject area has shown no sign of abating since that time. A recent contribution is Faith versus Fact (2015) by University of
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Karin Slaughter (http://www.karinslaughter.com/, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karin_Slaughter) is a pretty useful name to have for a girl who writes crime fiction. She has sold 30 million copies of her gripping psychological crime fiction and is published in 32 languages. Slaughter is a passionate defender of public libraries against the philistines who are ignoring them and running them down
Simon Scarrrow (http://www.scarrow.co.uk/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Scarrow) is best known for his Eagle series of Roman military fiction set in the territories of the Roman Empire, covering the second invasion of Britain and the subsequent prolonged campaign undertaken by the rump of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. To date there are thirteen books in the series, with the 13th released in
Journalist Paul Mason (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Mason_(journalist)#Books) has become familiar to us in recent months on TV news reports about the Greek debt crisis, and the possibility of Greece crashing out of the Eurozone. His open necked engaging style is delivered with a distinctive Lancashire accent. The author of four previous books on politics and economics, he now
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Laura Wilson (http://www.laura-wilson.co.uk/website/) grew up in London and studied English Literature at University College London. She has written history about many different periods for children before turning to historical crime fiction, where she concentrates on the recent past. Her fifth novel, The Lover, set during the London Blitz, won the French Prix du Polar Europeen in
Kazuo Ishiguro (http://www.faber.co.uk/author/kazuo-ishiguro/) is a much loved and admired British novelist, screenwriter and short story writer. He was born in Nagasaki, Japan, his family moving to England in 1960 when he was five. Ishiguro obtained his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Kent in 1978 and his Masters from the University of East Anglia’s creative-writing
